


Did He Really Hit On You?—The Sophie Thinks They All Need Training Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: Drama, F/M, Flirting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Triggers, same sex kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 23:55:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: Was was it about this job that had both Nate and Eliot almost blowing their covers? Sophie wants to know.





	Did He Really Hit On You?—The Sophie Thinks They All Need Training Job

**Author's Note:**

> There are triggers in this fic. Nothing explicit at all, but since we all have some clues as to what might have happened in each of their childhoods/early adulthoods, there might be instances where one or more of them have encountered people who have abused them. The mark in this fic is very, very shady too. Just a warning if this isn't your cup of tea. I'm still rating it Mature just in case. I wish they had a warning just for child abuse, not just non-con.

Did He Really Hit On You?—The Sophie Thinks They All Need Training Job

Takes place season four.

 

“You almost blew our cover. Do you know that?”

The argument had started in the van and had continued in the elevator on the way up to Nate’s apartment.  Nate hadn’t been the only one to almost blow their cover. Eliot could take some of the blame too.

“There have to be contingencies in place,” Sophie started.

“Contingencies?” Nate angrily questioned.  “You’re talking to me about contingencies?”

“Give it a rest,” Hardison reminded the two, pulling his laptop to the desk so that he could connect it.

“Hey, at least we got the info we needed,” Parker contributed.

“Barely,” Eliot added, resting his forearm against the table as he watched Hardison do his magic.

“Both of you have to realize that if this situation happens again, then you need to be prepared.”

Sophie was right. She knew she was right.  The two men shook their heads, each turning a different way, like they were going to abandon her where she stood.

“Stop, the both of you.”

Both Eliot and Nate stopped dead in their tracks but didn’t look at each other or her.

“It appears that both of you need more training.”

“Training?” Eliot asked her, incredulous that he’d actually need training for a job.

“Soph, it won’t matter,” Nate told her as he went for the bottle sitting on the counter.

Sophie grabbed it away from him, thrusting it behind her back.

“Sit,” she commanded.

Hardison snorted as he kept typing away at his computer, while Parker stood next to him, watching the two men like it was a tennis match.

Sophie realized a bit later that this should have been done much sooner, but she thought that possibly they both had experienced something like this.  Was she projecting her own life onto the two men or was she just expecting too much out of them? 

“Hardison, were you uncomfortable with the situation at hand?” Sophie started.

“He wasn’t in the room,” Eliot complained.

“I was asking Hardison a question.  Pipe down.”

Eliot rolled his eyes at her as he settled down at the counter in the kitchen.  Nate had taken to sitting at his desk, as far from the action as he could possibly get without going upstairs to his room.

“Nope,” was Hardison’s simple answer.

“Parker?

“No. Why would I?”

“Sophie?” Nate asked, whether it was a warning or a question, Sophie didn’t know at that moment.

“Maybe if Hardison had done his research.”

“Hey, you can’t hack this kind of stuff, alright?  Maybe I might have missed a few things here and there.”

Hardison hadn’t looked up from his computer.  So maybe Hardison was a bit embarrassed.  Or embarrassed to talk about it in front of the others.

“Alright, everyone.  I just want to know.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Nate said, compounding her frustration with him to the nth degree.

“Hardison, have you ever kissed a man?”

Hardison had taken a drink out his orange soda bottle when Sophie had asked that question. He almost dropped it on the table.  She just needed to know, to give each of them better tools to deal with the situation that they had just encountered.

“What? You askin’ me if I ever, well, you know.”

“Simple question,” Parker reiterated.  “I have.  Kissed a man. And a woman. Many times.”

“Women?” Hardison mumbled.

“Yes, Hardison. Several. What’s the big deal?”

They all looked at her funny.  Parker always did say what was on her mind with the group.

“Very good, Parker. One of you actually knows how to deal with a person of the same sex hitting on you.”

“I mean, yeah, once or twice. It’s not a habit or anything.  There was this one time…” Hardison went on until Sophie waved for him to stop.

“So, you would have no issue with what went on tonight?”

“No. We’re on a job. Of course, anyone hitting on me might throw up a red flag.”

“Oh Hardison.  You are just adorable. Don’t sell yourself short.”

Sophie wanted to make sure he knew she thought that he was adorable.  She would totally flirt with him if she was just the least bit interested.

“I’d hit on you. If I knew how to hit on people. Which I don’t.”

Hardison grinned a bit at Parker’s statement.

“Ok, what does this have to do with anything?” Nate finally asked.

“The two of you were like deer in the headlights out there.  Eliot mumbling like a fool and you?”

“You had a tell,” Eliot admitted, looking at Nate. “Just sayin’.”

“What? I was just a bit surprised.”

Sophie went to stand directly next to Eliot.

“More like stunned into silence for once,” Parker chided.

“I’m not exactly dating material,” Nate pointed out as he raised his glass to his mouth.  “You’ve said so yourselves, each and every one of you.”

“You’re a drunk.”

“Dress a bit better.”

“So not cool.”

“Darling, you do tend to come off as a bit unapproachable.”

“I have a job to do.”

Sophie shook her head yes, like she did agree with that statement.

“Which was to infiltrate that party so that we could get close to the mark.”

“Ya failed,” Eliot pointed out.

“You should not talk.  You did the exact same thing, Eliot,” Sophie pointed out.

“He was weirding me out is all.”

“Fake it until you make it,” Parker said as she crossed her arms across her chest.

Nate glared at Parker as Eliot narrowed his scowl even more than usual.

“She’s correct in her assessment.  Eliot, I do know that you can charm half the population at a moment’s notice.”

“This isn’t about…” Eliot started.

“Yes, this is about that.  He was looking to connect with any good-looking man in the room. The two of you had the perfect opportunity to step forward and you both blew it.”

Parker shook her head yes to agree with Sophie.

“Not my thing,” Nate concluded as he took another swig from his glass. “I only have two characters. You know that.  It’s either obnoxious lawyer or obnoxious accountant.”

“You did do the obnoxious school teacher that one time.”

“Obnoxious priest. Super drunk too.”

Nate rubbed his hand over his face.

“I think that a little role playing is in order. Let me gather my thoughts. Tomorrow we act!”

Both Eliot and Nate groaned while Hardison just smiled as he tapped away at his computer.

“Everyone. Not just the slackers.”

“I’m not a slacker,” Eliot pointed out as he turned to go into the kitchen.

“I have work to do,” Nate told the grifter.

“Which is to hook the son of a bitch because he is not going to respond to me in the slightest.”

 

The next day, they all showed up when they were supposed to, although it looked to Sophie like the three men would be less than cooperative.

“Ok, let’s all get comfortable.”

Sophie had arranged the chairs in the small circle so that each of them could see the others while they were speaking.  Nate had his arms crossed in front of him.  Hardison was loose and smirking a bit.  Parker was looking anxiously around, like she wasn’t sure what Sophie had in mind.  Eliot just looked pissed off as he kept making awful faces at each of them, like it was their fault he was sitting where he was.

“Alright, I want to know each of your experiences with either sex.”

“Oh, I didn’t know we were going to talk about sex,” Parker chimed in.

“No, Parker. Well, yes. You’re right. This does have to do with what our experiences are with people in general, but mostly how we’ve dealt with the opposite sex or the same sex during romantic encounters. It is certainly alright if you’ve had no experience with either.”

Hardison moved his head back and forth to each side, like he was getting ready for a prize fight. Nate just sat there and rolled his eyes.

“Get on with it,” Eliot growled back.

“Hardison.  What kind of experience have you had with people of the same sex?”

Hardison looked back and forth between them, but especially Eliot and Parker. Sophie could feel the vibes coming off him, like there was something he wanted to tell both Eliot and Parker, but had put it off for many reasons, one of which was how Eliot would take the fact that Hardison had a massive crush on the man.

“Not much. Experimenting in high school a few times.  Just kid stuff.  Nothing serious.  I did have a girlfriend in high school too.”

“You ain’t in high school anymore,” Eliot said as he loosened his sitting stance just a bit.

“Very funny, El.  Geeks get no love, if you know what I mean.”

“Ok, that’s fine, Hardison.  There’s nothing wrong with not having that much experience.”

“Oh wait. I’ve had some experience with women.”

“Right,” Eliot kidded.

“Just because I don’t date a different woman every night. I happen to like women.  Don’t mind men either, but still.”

Parker smiled through Hardison’s confessions, not even flinching at Hardison’s last announcement. Sophie knew that Hardison was a bit of a geek, so it made it more difficult for him to play a part in a job where he had to be on the prowl.  Women or men would eat him up and spit him out until he learned a few more tricks.  She was glad she hadn’t sent him out on this last job.  It would not have been pretty or gotten them anywhere.  Besides, Hardison was not the man’s type.

Neither was Parker, but she raised her hand anyway.  “Pick me.”

“Parker. What do you have to share?”

If this wasn’t a therapy session, Sophie didn’t know what it was.  Only two of her patients were refusing to cooperate.

“Why does it make any difference who we like to hang out with? I mean, does anyone care who is in anyone’s bed?”

Nate choked a bit at Parker’s latest question. Damn him, Sophie thought. He better not crack under pressure. This was not her intent. She just needed him to be better prepared if the mark went one way and he went another.

“It’s not like I’ve had a ton of partners, but kissing women or men is about the same.”

“No, it’s not, Parker,” Eliot finally piped up.

“To me it is.”

“Eliot, would you like to share?”

Eliot looked to be in a bit of pain almost, like he was trying to not relive something in his past.

“I’m not doing this,” Eliot said as he got up to flee. Only Parker taking his hand in hers had him slowly sitting back down in his seat.

“Eliot, it doesn’t matter what happened in your past. Sophie is just gonna have us do role playing. No one cares who you’ve slept with.”

“I just feel that this is an invasion of privacy.”

“Eliot, we don’t have to know specifics or anything. I just need to know if you’re on board with learning how to deal with the same sex coming on to you.”

“Of course, I know.”

Parker shook her head to agree with Eliot, like she knew he was telling the truth.

“Eliot? This is not to shame you or make you feel uncomfortable.”

“Already done. Listen, when you’ve been around the block as many times as I have.”

Hardison coughed as he said, “black book”.

“There had to be a few men here and there.  Nothing serious, alright. I know how to flirt, Soph.”

“You do. Then you need to show it next time or this con will be dead on arrival.”

She tried to point out the obvious. They needed him to cooperate.

“She’s right, Eliot.  He did seem attracted to you.”

Nate had finally come out of whatever state he had put himself in before any of them had entered his apartment. It was like he was rehearsing what he was going to say to each of them.

“I wasn’t the one whose hair was tangled in the mark’s hand.”

Sophie couldn’t tell whether the blush that blossomed on Nate’s face and neck was from anger at Eliot’s observation or that he was embarrassed that anyone knew.

“Shit. That wasn’t. I mean, I stopped him.  Can we not do this?”

“This is why we do this. If you don’t want his attention, then we need to figure out a way for you to counter his …”

“Handsyness?” Hardison called it.  “Saw him brush up against you a time or two.”

The arm cross became tighter as Nate sat in his chair.

“Nate, there’s nothing wrong with feeling a bit trapped by the mark.  Both Parker and I have experienced that same feeling several times. Well, possibly many times. I haven’t actually counted.”

“I just stab them with a fork.”

“Sweetie, remember what we talked about. No stabbing the mark,” Hardison reminded the thief.

“What? You make one mistake.”

“Four times.”

“Five. Remember that one time.”

“It hurts, Parker.  It really hurts.”

Each of the men pointed out what Parker might be doing wrong when it came to someone hitting on her.

“Listen, we all can be shy or an introvert when it comes to someone hitting on you. But we need to learn how to act like we enjoy it. Nate, what kind of experience have you had…”

Before Sophie could finish her question, Nate was up out of his chair and half way out the door.

“We’re not done.”

“Yeah, we are,” Nate called over his shoulder. He slammed the door in finality.

“Uh, guys. That was just not someone who is uncomfortable with someone hitting on him.”

Hardison was right.  Nate was not only uncomfortable with what the mark had done, there was something else in play.

“Sophie, I got this. Give Nate a pass on this one.”

Eliot looked like he was taking one for the team instead of really wanting to complete this job. 

 

The bar was quiet for once, with snow falling in the middle of the night.  Nate had pulled away from her after her questioning and had not come back to even acknowledging anything other than finishing the job. She let it slide, knowing that once it was finished, she could gently probe why he was feeling very put out with what she’d done.

“Come down to grill me?” Nate said as he slammed down another drink.

“No, I was ready to call it a night. I just wanted to say good job on this one.”

“It all goes to Eliot. Took one for the team.”

“Nate, whatever happened up there.”

“You’re sorry. I know.”

Nate was sitting at the bar with his back turned from her instead of looking at her. Quietly sitting down beside him, she pulled the bottle he had been pouring from and put a bit in a glass for herself.

“Nate, I get the feeling that I said something that stirred a memory from the past.”

“Yeah, and maybe you shouldn’t pursue that line of questioning for once.”

“I am sorry.”

“I know.”

They sat in silence as they drank what was in their glasses.

“It’s just the look, you know. You never forget that look. That look the mark gave me.”

Nate’s hand had practically turned white as he gripped the edge of the bar top.

“I was eight, I think.  New parish priest.  The guy thought he could put his hands on me. Never ran so fast in my life.”

It was like a knife had been stuck in Sophie and twisted. She hadn’t meant to call up those horrible images.

“I did some digging. On our mark. I told Hardison. We were there to take him down.  I knew we couldn’t prove the other things that he’d done.”

Sophie moved her hand over to Nate’s and pried it from the bar gently.

“He had a lot of porn. A lot of porn, if you know what I mean. I was going through that initial batch of files that Parker had stolen a few weeks before. It was buried deep. I just had to keep looking for those irregularities.”

“Him hitting on you brought up those memories?”

“Him existing brought up those memories.  Sophie, I’m no saint. You know that. I’ve been around the block a few times and I have nothing against what anyone here has experienced in their personal lives.  I just kept thinking about what happened to me. Parker. There had to be something.  Eliot.  I’m pretty sure he was abused at some point, whether it was physical or something else.  I have no idea about you. You bury things so deep.”

Nate turned to finally look at her then, hand still in hers.

“You knew, that night. It had nothing to do with him hitting on you?”

“No.”

“Nate, you should have told me.”

“I couldn’t chance losing this one.  There was an outside chance that either Eliot or Parker would have done something.”

“He wouldn’t have paid for his transgressions. He would have been possibly dead. Eliot would have made it look like an accident.”

“And Parker would have just done it without anyone the wiser.”

“We can’t tell any of them.”

“Exactly what I told Hardison.”

“Nate, did that priest. Did he ever…?”

“No. I was lucky. I avoided him like the plague after.  Being eight, no one would have believed me. I did spike his drinks with laxative on several occasions though.  And warned every single kid I could think of that he wasn’t right in the head.  He left a few months after.”

There was something else that Nate was not telling her.  “You somehow did something else about him, didn’t you?”

“I found him, while I was working for IYS.  I used their resources to track him down. By then, he was retired.  I was too late to do any good.”

“You did turn his name in though?”

“I did.”

“You were eight.”

“And Parker was how old?  Six or younger when she was put in the system?  And Eliot?  I don’t think his father did that to him, but I’m sure that relationship wasn’t that healthy.  And what happened to him, with Moreau? Or before?”

Standing up before him, Sophie moved in closer so that he could hear what she had to say and no one else would if they came into the room.

“Nate, I was not abused in any way when I was a child. That doesn’t mean I didn’t encounter situations along the way. You know that I didn’t exactly have backup when I was working alone.”

“Who do I need to kill?”

“No one, Nate.”

“That means you took care of them yourself.”

“I’m not saying either way. We protect each other now, in more ways than one.  So, I’m still wondering if a man has ever kissed you?”

Sophie knew that changing the subject now was best.  He looked to be emotionally worn down if by the shaking of one of his hands was any indication. 

“Once. No, twice.  In college. Once on a dare.”

“A dare?”

“Well, just, there was this guy.  It wasn’t meant to be.”

“You had feelings for him?”

Now that did surprise Sophie. Nate never gave any indication that he might have had a relationship with a man.

“No, not exactly.  Then I met Maggie a few months later.”

It had taken Sophie a long time to get over the fact that Nate had actually loved his wife before ever meeting Sophie. 

“The guy was a jerk to me. Not sure what the hell was going on with that.”

“You liked the challenge. Just like you like the challenge with me.”

Sophie could tell by the far off look on Nate’s face that he was reliving that challenge in his mind.

“Thank god he never remembered…” Nate started, stopping when he realized what he had said in front of her.

“Do you still know him?”

“Oh, no, no, no.  Not in the least.”

“Oh dear, when you lie, you have a tell. The only men in your life still of similar age are Father Paul and Sterling.”

Nate rolled his eyes at her, a very exaggerated roll.

“You didn’t, Nate?”

“Didn’t what?”

“Sterling? Jim Sterling? You knew him when you were in college? Why on earth hadn’t you told me? And you kissed him? What were you thinking?”

“Hey, you said no judgment.”

“But it’s Sterling.”

“Yeah, one reason why.  Was just as big a dick back then as he is now.”

“How could you be attracted to that?”

“Did I say I was?  He was the dare, alright.”

Sophie shook herself a little when thinking about Sterling as a youth kissing Nate.  She knew that Nate must have been gorgeous with those big blue eyes of his. He still was by her estimations even though the man had no sense of style. 

Pulling him to her, she placed a light kiss on his lips, telling him that she was there for him whenever he needed to talk.

“I wondered where on earth you learned to kiss like that.”

“Oh god, Soph. Not him. It was a dare. He was drunk. So was I.”

“So, the next time I see him, I can ask him?”

 

“You knew?”

“Knew what? What am I supposed to know?”

Eliot was hoping that Hardison was going to tell him the truth about what was really up with the last mark they took down.

“You know, you get this feeling.  It’s an itch you can’t scratch. A look you cannot forget. And a file that you left unattended. Did you do that on purpose?”

“Eliot, you just. Nate wanted this one done clean.  We couldn’t go at it that way. Now, once they had him in custody?  I may have unburied some files he had.”

Eliot clapped him on the back, knowing that Hardison yet again had done an exemplary job. He turned to go into the kitchen when Hardison stopped him with a look.

“Look, I just wanted you to know that whatever I said…”

“I know, Hardison.”

He didn’t think that Hardison might understand his statement, but let the man think long and hard about it.  Eliot wasn’t ready for anything serious with anyone and Hardison deserved that from whoever he decided was worth his time.

“As Parker says, pretzels.”

“Pretzels?”

“They’re here when you need them.”

“That’s the dumbest analogy.”

“It’s Parker.”

“True.”


End file.
